


After the Fall

by MiraMira



Series: genhp_ldws entries [8]
Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts, Minor Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, One Shot, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-25
Updated: 2010-07-25
Packaged: 2017-10-10 19:17:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiraMira/pseuds/MiraMira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Horace Slughorn, the man who trumpeted his favorite students' success stories as his own while dismissing all memory of his failures, the reckoning has finally come.  Now, he must gather his scattered snakes and prepare them for the new world they inhabit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Winner of the final Round One challenge at the Gen HP Last Drabble Writer Standing competition @ LJ

Horace Slughorn is not among the celebrants when Voldemort falls. For the man who trumpeted his favorites' success stories as his own while dismissing all memory of his failures, the reckoning has finally come. It lies around him, in the form of men whose family connections no longer do them credit, of the class beauty turned feral creature – even the pale, twisted husk of a thing he once considered his prize pupil.

Now, before joy turns to mourning, and mourning to recrimination, he must gather his scattered snakes and prepare them for the new world they inhabit.

He finds Blaise Zabini first. The boy's immaculate clothing and untroubled grin stick out amid the ruins of Hogwarts like a living weed in a burnt field.

"Word got back to us that Potter was dead, so I figured I'd better pay my respects to the Dark Lord," he explains. "Now…well, in the confusion of the last minutes, who'll remember who was really there?"

_Anyone who was there,_ Slughorn thinks, but does not say. Zabini will need to learn that reflected glory only leaves one diminished in the presence of the genuine article. Hopefully, he will figure it out sooner than Horace has. He tells Zabini where to direct any classmates he encounters, and moves on.

Millicent Bulstrode has been in the fighting. He can tell from the quick raise of her head and her wary glance, even before he notices the way she is cradling her wand arm.

"Tracey's with the wounded," she says, without prompting. "Don't worry; she's fine. They trust her to help. She's been spying for them since November, you know."

He knows, though he's surprised Millicent does. It must show, because she snorts. "I'm not that dense, no matter what some think. Her blood's only half good, same as mine. If I was better at acting, I'd have joined her sooner." Her grip on her arm tightens, though the pain appears more mental than physical. "Maybe then I wouldn't have had to prove anything – or hurt anyone."

Try as he might, he cannot persuade her to visit the healers, and so he leaves her with his message.

There are no healers nearby when he locates Theodore Nott – or rather, a terrified Pansy Parkinson, who hovers over the boy's prone form and fallen mask as though hoping her fluttering will stir air back into his struggling lungs.

"Why didn't they listen to me?" she repeats, like a mantra. "This wouldn't have happened if they'd _listened_ to me!"

Nott's eyes meet his, startling in their clarity. Slughorn reads no regrets in them: whether satisfied he has done his part or relieved that no more will be asked of him, young Theodore is leaving this world willingly. _Never mind me,_ his feeble gestures seem to say. _Take care of her._

But Pansy resists Horace's efforts to pull her away. So he waits with her until Nott's breathing stills, before taking her under an arm to join the remnants of her classmates.


End file.
